LEWIS Eden, who is serving his curacy with the Crediton Benefice Mission Community, following training for ordination at Cranmer Hall, Durham, will be ordained Deacon in Exeter Cathedral at 3pm tomorrow, Saturday, September 11.

Numbers are limited at the Cathedral so the service is to be livestreamed.

The Crediton area church congregation is invited to go along to view the service in the Boniface Centre at 3pm so that everyone can enjoy this special moment for Lewis together as a church family.

If you would prefer to watch the service at home the link to the Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/CofEDevon .

Lewis said: “It was through school where I first heard the Gospel preached. It was during some of these assemblies that something began to churn away inside of me.

“It was like a seed had been planted and was beginning to grow inside of me. I discovered that the local church ran a youth group on a Saturday evening, and I started going along.

“It was through this youth group, and the school assemblies that were led by Daniel French, now vicar of Salcombe, that I started thinking about faith.

“I guess you could say that I have good sense of holy fear about this, knowing that God has everything under control, but still not completely handing everything over to God. I am deeply excited to see how God shall use me and the people with whom I live, worship and serve for.”

Lewis was away on retreat this week to prepare for his ordination.

A total of 16 people will be ordained as new ministers in the Church of England in the service at Exeter Cathedral.

The nine men and seven women come from across Devon and range in age from 26 to early 60s.

They have spent the last two or three years training for ordained ministry at the region’s two theological colleges, St Mellitus in Plymouth and the South West Ministry Training Course in Exeter. Some candidates trained at colleges elsewhere in England.

They will spend the next 12 months as deacons, working in churches or a chaplaincy role before becoming fully-fledged priests in a year’s time.